Surfing...well, sort of...

Last week, our boys started "surfing 4H". Never heard of it? We hadn't either. But it is a pretty cool idea. The boys get surfing lessons, complete with wet suit, booties and surfboards. They were pretty excited about it. Thane decided we should join them, since neither of us have ever surfed (is that a word?) Anyway, so he "strongly encourages" me to join them. I believe he said, "Your boys want you to go surfing with them." Or some other guilt inducing verbage. So, I throw caution to the wind and decide I'm in! So, we head up to the surf shop on the beach to get outfitted for a wet suit. Now, let me just share that where I grew up, going into the ocean does not require a wet suit. In Jersey, you pull on your swim suit and head into the water. The ocean is fun and warm, and when I was growing up we spent many weeks of many summers, in the ocean. So the concept of a wet suit was very daunting.

It took quite a while to get the suit on. I know some of you are laughing. But I think it is important to note that a girl would want to take care of any figure flaws she is concerned about, before donning a wet suit. I mean ...somebody should have helped a girl out here! That sucker is tight! So after about an hour (okay a little less) I come waddling out of this dressing room looking like...well, ridiculous! The boys were all excited about their wet suits, completely convinced they looked more muscular in them. My farm boy, husband also seemed undaunted by the wet suit, actually he looked good...really good! Oh, sorry, I digressed...

So the next thing we get is this HUGE surf board, and now somehow I am supposed to carry it on the 1/4 mile walk to the beach. Now, I'm no sissy, so I pick up my surf board and head out. The coastal wind blowing hard against my surfboard as I'm walking, made my journey much more difficult. But none of the boys were complaining, so neither was I! We finally made it to the beach and we got a quick lesson on the sand. I can't really tell you what the instruction was, because it started out with the word "riptide" and I don't remember much after that.

So the instructor gets done instructing, and Thane picks up his board, looks at me and says "Let's go honey!" Then he begins running into the surf. I just stood there, freezing in the Oregon wind. "Come on babe, " he yelled as he looked over his shoulder surprised I wasn't behind him. "Nope", I said...not going. Thane stops and comes back to me. "What's wrong?" he asked. "I don't want to do it," I explained. "Riptides, sharks, wind, cold water...I don't know, this just doesn't sound like fun." He encouraged me to try it, reminding me that I had a huge advantage over the other surfing Oregonians. "You grew up in the ocean," he said, "You love it!" That was all I needed. Man, I love that about him. He always knows exactly what to say to me. So off we ran, into the Pacific Ocean to learn how to surf. We had the best time! We each got up on our boards after several waves and took turns "high fiving" each other. The boys had fun too. It was really a good time, until....I got nibbled by a great white shark! (Thane says it was just a charlie horse but I am sure I saw a fin!) SURFS UP!!!!